Data is the oil of the AI boom\u2014and the startup Mecka AI hopes to tap the vast reservoir of hand gestures, walking gaits, and immense collection of humanity\u2019s physical motions to better train our future overlords: robots.\u00a0<\/p>\n
So-called \u201cembodied\u201d AI data isn\u2019t exactly novel. Wayve<\/a>, the British autonomous driving company, has trained its models on visual input pulled from car cameras. And, on Friday, the startup MicroAGI announced that it was offering<\/a> New Yorkers a free home cleaning\u2014if they consented to cameras recording the cleaners\u2019 every action.\u00a0<\/p>\n Still, Josh Gao, Mecka AI\u2019s cofounder and CEO, believes that his startup is a first mover\u2014and his investors believe he has a chance to strike it big. Headquartered in New York City, the company has raised a total of $60 million across two previously unannounced fundraises: a $25 million Series A round closed in November and $35 million in a follow-on investment. Gao declined to tell me at what valuation he raised the capital.<\/p>\n Framework Ventures, a VC best known for its crypto investments, led the rounds. Other investors who participated included Menlo Ventures, SV Angel, Kindred Ventures, and the angel Ted Xiao, a former researcher at Google<\/a> DeepMind<\/a> and founding member at Jeff Bezos\u2019s AI startup Project Prometheus.<\/p>\n \u201cMany folks are now looking and realizing that robotics is going to be one of the most important waves that\u2019s happening,\u201d Gao said on a video call from the Chinese city of Shenzhen, where he was visiting a factory that was producing custom equipment his startup designed to capture human data.<\/p>\n Fintech to robotics<\/p>\n Gao and his three cofounders aren\u2019t your conventional AI hotshots with credentials from leading AI labs or Stanford University. In 2023, Gao and Mecka AI cofounder Mogen Cheng sold their prior startup, which focused on building out payments tech for restaurants. Their third cofounder, Jason Chong, sold his own startup to the crypto exchange Coinbase<\/a>, and their fourth, Duy Nguyen, was an \u201cOG sneakerhead\u201d who made millions of dollars \u201cflipping\u201d shoes, said Gao.<\/p>\n Rather than focus on fintech, the founding quartet, who knew each other through mutual friends, decided to look at where the puck was going and zeroed in on AI for robots. \u201cCan you have general intelligence in the physical world?\u201d asked Gao.<\/p>\n They spent months devouring research papers, visiting robotics labs, and messaging roboticists on social media. Soon, they landed on what Gao said was an unconventional hypothesis: Train robots on data collected from humans, not from data collected through \u201cteleoperation,\u201d or when humans manually operate a robot.<\/p>\n That idea was mainly explored in research papers, Gao said, but his team partnered with robotics labs to show that it could work at scale. \u201cNobody really popularly believed this would be possible,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n In 2025, after collecting thousands upon thousands of gigabytes of data, the four cofounders decided that they had enough traction to start Mecka AI. Gao and his cofounders use different methods of collecting data from humans, including custom hardware like body sensors as well as iPhones. There\u2019s real demand, said Gao, adding that Mecka AI projects an annual run rate of $100 million based on already-signed contracts. (He declined to name Mecka AI\u2019s customers.)<\/p>\n \u201cI mean, this is the fastest-growing revenue company that we\u2019ve ever invested in, so the proof is in the business itself,\u201d Vance Spencer, cofounder of Framework Ventures, told me.<\/p>\n But, Gao, whose startup now has 40 employees, doesn\u2019t envision Mecka AI as merely a data aggregator. He wants his company to be on the frontlines, personally helping firms integrate and train robotics models. \u201cUseful robots can be deployed today,\u201d Gao declared, \u201cand immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n See you tomorrow,<\/p>\n Ben Weiss Joey Abrams curated the deals section of today\u2019s newsletter. Subscribe here<\/a>.<\/p>\n VENTURE DEALS<\/p>\n – Fonoa<\/a>, a Dublin, Ireland-based AI tax operating system, raised $110 million in Series C funding. Headline led the round and was joined by Eurazeo, Forestay Capital, and existing investors.<\/p>\n – Inherent<\/a>, a London, U.K.-based AI lab, raised $50 million in seed funding. Index Ventures and Radical Ventures led the round.<\/p>\n – Picogrid<\/a>, an El Segundo, Calif.-based defense tech company, raised $45 million in Series A funding. Bessemer Venture Partners led the round and was joined by Washington Harbour, GSBackers, and existing investors.<\/p>\n – Pax<\/a>, a S\u00e3o Paulo, Brazil-based AI company designed for public safety, raised $40 million in seed funding. Greenoaks and Benchmark led the round.<\/p>\n – MokN<\/a>, a New York City-based cybersecurity company, raised $15 million in Series A funding. GV led the round and was joined by Datadog and others.<\/p>\n – Rep AI<\/a>, a Tel Aviv, Israel-based AI platform designed for e-commerce brands, raised $6.2 million in funding. Silicon Road Ventures led the round and was joined by Osage Venture Partners, Flashpoint Venture Capital, and Zendesk.<\/p>\n – Iconic<\/a>, a Los Angeles, Calif.-based M&A advisory firm, raised $6 million in funding from Expa, Oceans Ventures, Fluent VC, and others.<\/p>\n – Volt Harbor<\/a>, an Ann Arbor, Mich.-based developer of energy storage systems, raised $2 million in seed funding. MFV Partners led the round.<\/p>\n EXITS<\/p>\n – CoStar Group agreed to acquire Zonda<\/a>, a Newport Beach, Calif.-based data, marketplace, and software platform for the new home ecosystem, from MidOcean Partners for $800 million in cash.<\/p>\n
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